School board mulls appeal on self rule

Despite its recent failure to halt self-government negotiations, the Kativik School Board has been down, but not out.

In a news release, the school board said it’s “obviously disappointed” with the judgment, but “it is also important to note that the school board hasn’t lost the case.”

At a meeting this week, KSB commissioners were to decide whether to appeal the court’s decision not to stop talks on self-governnment before the school board’s main action can be heard.

“We believe that the judgment may contain a number of important errors which could give grounds for a motion for leave to appeal,” says the news release.

But Makivik Corporation’s president Pita Aatami said in an interview from Montreal he’s still hoping the school board will decide to join forces and drop its court challenges.

“I made an invitation. Come on board, we’ll work together…[but]we haven’t made any headway on that yet,” Aatami said.

It’s “very clear,” said Aatami, that Makivik has the mandate to speak on behalf of Nunavimmiut in self-government negotiations.

“They worry because we have our own government in Nunavik that the education will drop because of this. We’re trying to comprehend where they’re coming from. (Nunavik) is not strong enough as it is – we want to make it stronger.”

Aatami said he’s “the last person” who would try to jeopardize the education of Nunavik’s children.

“We’re not going backwards, we’re going forward. We know what our rights are. We know what we’re looking for. Anyone in their right mind should recognize that,” Aatami said. “We’re not trying to lessen the rights that we had over the years..we have a right to education and it will be funded by the Quebec government under the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement. That’s not going to disappear.”